New snacking ideas present growing opportunities

It may be time for manufacturers and retailers to redefine snacks, as consumers have been steadily reshaping the definition of what is and isn’t a snack. “Consumers are snacking in new ways,” said Kara Nielsen, a trendologist at the Center of Culinary Development and an author of a recent study on snacks for Packaged Facts. “Consumers are eating more snacks as mini-meals, and all those occasions can’t be satisfied with a bag of chips.”

From a consumer standpoint, anything can be a snack, said Lynn Dornblaser, director of CPG Trend Insight for Mintel Research Consultancy. “It could be a cookie, it could be a frozen meal, or a piece of gum or an enhanced beverage.” One thing is clear, Dornblaser said, consumers are making healthier snack choices.

A recent Times & Trends “New Product Pacesetters” report from Information Resources Inc. stated that “better-for-you is not going away any time soon,” and predicted the trend toward healthier products is “expected to gain steam, regardless of economic conditions.” Snack choices often are driven by kids, and the next generation is accustomed to new flavors and healthier choices.

Snackers are looking for healthier crunchy options as well. Consumers, particularly younger shoppers, are accepting new flavors and ingredients. “Seaweed snacks are emerging as a big segment,” Nielsen said. “They are easy to eat, salty, crunchy and healthier than traditional salty snacks, and they are very popular with kids.” It’s not a leap for kids who have grown up eating sushi to reach for rice crackers wrapped with seaweed or algae.

Consumers also are looking for alternatives to traditional potato chips. Chips made from such roots as cassava root and vegetables bring something new to the market.

Even traditional snack manufacturers are finding ways to promote their healthier-for-you products to consumers. “It’s hard for salty snack manufacturers to think outside the box, but Frito-Lay has done a good job with Sun Chips, promoting ingredients and environmental responsibility,” Dornblaser said.

Dornblaser said drug store retailers are in a perfect spot to offer their customers more in the way of snack options, but they face challenges. “The drug channel gets a lot of snack traffic, so there’s lots of opportunity. But there’s limited space, so every choice has to be a good one,” she said.

Using endcaps to pull snack possibilities from other parts of the store could be a good solution. “They might pull energy bars, enhanced water, shelf-stable meals and salty snacks together on an endcap as a snack center,” Dornblaser said.

Including shelf-stable meals or more substantial snacks could satisfy those snacking opportunities that double as a mini-meal. Some drug chains, such as CVS, already are dabbling in prepared foods, such as wrapped sandwiches. Nielsen said the Japanese convenience chain Famima provides a good model for convenient fresh options. “Famima’s prepared food cases blow wrapped sandwiches away,” she said. “If drug stores really want to get into fresh convenience foods, Famima is an excellent model.”

Kroger declares quarterly dividend

CINCINNATI The Kroger Co. announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of 9 cents per share to be paid on Sept. 1 to shareholders of record at of the close of business on Aug. 14.

Kroger, one of the nation’s largest retail grocery chains, employs more than 326,000 associates, who serve customers in 2,475 supermarkets and multi-department stores in 31 states.

On Thursday, the company announced that its president and COO Don McGeorge was retiring. McGeorge has been replaced by W. Rodney McMullen.

Walgreens to test diabetes care model

NEW YORK Walgreens continues to flesh out its revamped strategy to be the nation’s most convenient and accessible provider of pharmacy and health-and-wellness services.

The latest plank in that platform is its plan to test a pharmacy-driven outreach and support program for patients with diabetes.

Diabetic-care services and product presentations are nothing new in the nation’s chain and independent drug stores; every pharmacy leader knows that diabetes is a major, (often undiagnosed) health challenge and a “gateway” disease that usually subjects its sufferers to a slew of other related conditions involving the circulatory system, the skin and other organs. It’s also no secret that diabetics generate far more in annual drug store sales to treat these related conditions.

What makes Walgreens’ pilot program worthy of notice are two things.

First, with some 6,800 retail pharmacies, 350 in-store and worksite clinics and a network of specialty pharmacies across the United States, the company wields enormous potential power in the healthcare marketplace. If it expands its fledgling diabetes pilot beyond the test stage, it has thousands of “points of care” through which it could offer diabetes support programs and other disease management offerings. It’s a huge potential resource to offer diabetic patients and their employer-based or government-sponsored health plans, not to mention those patients’ overburdened, time-constrained primary care doctors.

Second, Walgreens is very deliberately positioning its diabetes care offering as a part of a much broader, integrated healthcare platform that links patients in the program to all the company’s health-and-wellness capabilities, said Walgreens CEO Greg Wasson. And it dovetails neatly with the Obama administration’s call for “more preventive care and better access,” in the words of Walgreens’ top manager.

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